Oakland Cottage

Oakland Cottage is a house, now divided into two separate dwellings at numbers 31 and 33, with origins dating back to the 14th century and significant alterations around 1600, further modified in the 17th and 18th centuries. The building’s construction is timber-framed, with plaster infill and a roof of handmade red plain tiles.

The original design includes a two-bay crosswing at the right end, featuring a 19th-century chimney stack. A three-bay main range, built around 1600 and facing southeast, has a chimney stack located behind its right bay. A two-bay rear wing is situated at the left end, incorporating an internal chimney stack at the junction with the main range. An 18th-century lean-to extension runs along the rear of both the main range and crosswing, creating a catslide roofline that conceals the rear stack. A single-storey lean-to with a slate roof adjoins the right side of the rear wing.

The front of the building has two 19th-century square bay windows on the ground floor, along with an early 19th-century sash window with 12 lights and another with 2 + 4 lights. The first floor features three early 19th-century sash windows, each with 16 lights; the upper sash of the central window has been altered to 2 lights. These windows contain crown glass. A full-length jetty displaying a molded fascia carved with the initials “F M M 1685” is a distinctive feature. Number 31 has a blocked doorway converted into a 20th-century casement window and a separate entrance on the left return. Number 33 has a 6-panel door.

Inside the main range, you can find chamfered axial and transverse beams with lamb's tongue stops, as well as plain joists of vertical section. The crosswing features heavy, plain horizontal joists jointed to a chamfered binding beam with unrefined tenons. Jowled posts and partially exposed studding are also visible. The front wall of the crosswing has been raised approximately one metre above the tiebeam and roofed in a clasped purlin style, concealing part of the original roof structure, complete with a crownpost, collar-purlin, axial bracing, collars, and rafters. A blocked, unglazed window is present at the rear.

A noteworthy element on the first floor of the main range is a ‘borrowed light’ – a reused window with early handmade glass, some of which has an amber hue, set in diamond leading. One pane is inscribed with a signature and requires special care. Further chamfered axial beams with lamb's tongue stops are found above the first floor of the main range.

The left rear wing (part of number 31) includes a chamfered transverse beam with lamb's tongue stops, plain vertical joists, a wood-burning hearth converted to two 19th-century cupboards and a 20th-century grate, and a roof with clasped purlins. Historical records, including the Kelvedon marriage register from 1685, do not include a marriage corresponding with the initials carved into the jetty. A portion of the adjacent building to the northeast is included within the property boundaries of number 33, but is designated as a separate listed item.